A Rustic Apple Tart with Homemade Marzipan & Caramel Sauce {A Pictorial of Toledo, Spain}

Toledo, Spain was once the capital city, and  now a World Heritage Site. Toledo is only 2 hours train ride from Madrid. We took the AVE Train from Attocha Train Station and in just few hours we arrived at this medieval city! Toledo still retains the atmosphere and aura which are characteristic of so many European capital cities. Toledo is a magical place, probably one of the most spectacular cities in the world.

During the 13th century Toledo became one of the few places in Spain where Moors, Christians and Jews managed to live together and tolerate each other peacefully. Wow it makes you think if people of different backgrounds and religions could live in harmony in the 13^th Century than why not now.

Visitors can still admire the remains of churches, mosques and synagogues built during this time.

Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of almond meal and sugar. Marzipans origins are believed to be from Toledo, Spain. When we were in Toledo I saw so many shops with just Marzipan confections, including cakes, cookies & tarts.

Ahem…Yours truly brought many boxes of the Marzipan goodies, of course I carried them like a baby on the plane, just to have the customs stop me and question me to check what’s in the boxes. Fortunately they returned my goodies back to me and I thanked them by offering some Marzipans. I think some of the customs personnel  in NYC are now fans of Marzipans de Toledo!

I love baking with fruit! And when I heard that Deeba & Meeta over at  Monthly Mingle & Passionate About Baking were doing a Monthly Mingle about  Baking with Fruit, I was thrilled to say the least! So keeping with the theme, I made this rustic apple tart with homemade marzipan & caramel sauce. I used store bought puff pastry and lightly layered it with marzipan which by the way is so easy to make at home. Only 3 ingredients. I also made the caramel sauce at home, honestly it was my first time making the sauce, I was quite nervous.

The secret to making a homemade caramel sauce is patience. You need to stay with the sauce throughout, do not leave the stove to check your e-mail or tweet or worst yet start talking to your BFF and forget about the sauce.

Caramel sauce needs your attention or it will become a burnt,sticky mess..eeek! I also felt I should have waited longer for the sauce to cool and then pour it over the tart, as you can tell from my pictures, you can hardly see the caramel sauce, I did not wait long enough. Lesson learned!